?, ?, ?

Miantodai Dorm, 1st Floor, Kitchen

Evening

Junpei took a deep breath to settle himself, letting the ragged air escape his lips as he fought down the smallest of shakes. He had sought the refuge of the kitchen, explaining that he wanted a drink, and the worst person he had to avoid was Chidori of all people. She just... wouldn't let him go.

Like she was afraid. And her fear hurt him, even though it was fear for him, not of him.

Of course, this sanctuary wasn't perfect. Midori was here as well, tending the rice-cooker with single minded determination. Beside her, Black Frost was also staring with the uniform read eyes at the cooking device, though the young man was certain that the intensity of the gaze could have done the cooking just as easily.

She had acknowledged his presence when he came in with a simple nod, but after that, had ignored him. He wasn't sure she meant to be rude, but he could use a little attention now, rather than the smothering that Chidori was giving him. Perhaps he had to take the lead?

"So... four months?" And he promptly fell flat on his face. He just wanted something normal, not this latest round of insanity.

Midori looked up at him, no judging in her eyes. "We missed you." She jumped past the pleasant platitudes and straight into the heart of the matter. "When you... left," even she had troubles saying the correct words. For too long she had added Junpei to the list of people who had died around her, one that was already far too long. Now that he was back, the impossible seemed... normal. "When you left, it was hard being the 'fun' one in the Dorm. At least with you, it was easy to share the load."

Junpei nodded. He could see that. Sometimes he found himself forced to keep an upbeat attitude, even when things seemed to be going wrong just to raise everyone else's spirits. Midori's own optimism was a blessing in that regard, and he could see now how trying to be both him and her at the same time was wearing her thin. "So, you know what I was going to do on Christmas?"

"Take Chidori out on a date?"

Sputtering, Junpei tried to deflect the response, even though, yes, he had started making plans along those lines. Plans that would have to be scrapped, or at least delayed until next Christmas. "No! No! I was going to borrow Fuuka and get her to change your computer's sounds to the song 'Frosty the Snowman'!"

Midori blinked. Then started to grin. She could even see it! Giggling, she looked at Frosty, who didn't bother to break his vigil of the rice-cooker. "Oh, that would have been something!"

Pleased that at least someone was willing to pick up where they let off, Junpei didn't bother to hide his own smile. "So, what's been happening? And I don't mean the stuff Mitsuru-senpai stuffed into my head. I mean the real important stuff! Like how did the Winter Sports stuff go down?"

"Oh! I got one better! I convinced Aigis to join the Tennis Club!"

Third Floor, Sitting Area

Evening

"What's this?" Chidori demanded coolly as Fuuka and Yukari blocked her from leaving the hallway to the stairs. They didn't look happy. More like they were concerned.

"We need to talk," Yukari announced as sternly as she could. "Now."

"About what?" The red-haired young woman tried to force them to move through force of personality, but they held their ground despite feeling the pressure. "... Fine. Make it quick. I have to go check up on Junpei."

"Actually, it's about him." Yukari found some greater measure of courage as Chidori fixated her with all the force she could muster, leaving Fuuka on the fringe of the effect.

Then it broke. Like a wave, Chidori's expression shifted from one of annoyance and anger into one of abject fear. "Is he alright?" The plaintive whisper caught the two of them off guard, seeing in her a side they had forgotten existed. "He... vanished?"

"No!" Fuuka was first to jump in to calm Chidori's fears. "No! He's alright."

"Then what?"

The two younger girls shared a certain look. They weren't expecting this conversation to turn in this direction, so their carefully laid plans had gone awry. "Chidori? Come on, let's get a seat first." Yukari gently took her by the arm and led her to one of the chairs. It had to be the two of them. Aigis and Metis were useless, Mitsuru certainly couldn't be of help, and Midori wouldn't stick to any plans they made. It had to be the two of them.

"Now, Junpei is feeling alright, given what he's gone through." Fuuka reported, letting Chidori know that he wasn't the issue. "It's you."

"Me?" Some strength returned to Chidori's voice as she regained some of her composure. "What's going on?"

"You're smothering him." There. Fuuka really regretted the necessity of keeping Midori and Mitsuru out of the conversation. They could have delivered that line much better. "You need to give Junpei some room to breathe, he's still adjusting."

Chidori responded only with a blank and incredulous stare.

"I'm not saying to leave him alone! No! That's wrong!" Yukari hastened to move past the difficult part.

"That's right!" Fuuka agreed eagerly.

"What? What are you saying?" And Chidori regressed right back into her fearful self, not able to put up the shell to protect her.

"Junpei... he needs time to adjust. You have to give him some breathing room, Chidori. I know you ... I know you want to be by his side through all this, but you have to remember, for him, yesterday, he still thought you were kidnapped by STREGA." Fuuka regretted not being the same type of person as Yukari was, but it was hoped that her words would carry more weight for it. "Now he's stuck in here with us, and things must be so different for him."

"You have to support him, Chidori. You can't protect him from everything, even though we all know you want to." Yukari finished, hoping that they could take the time to talk to her properly. Who knew how long this would all take?

?, ?, ?

The Abyss of Time

Morning

Aigis had made her decision not by compatibility criteria, but rather on who hadn't experienced their past in the Abyss yet. Behind her, Midori, Koromaru, Yukari and Fuuka filed in after her. She had presented her reasoning and the expected objections did not materialize. Instead Midori had practically jumped at the chance, while Yukari looked like she needed some space from the Dorm. Koromaru simply walked up to her and sad down, tail wagging.

The others had plenty of things to do, so the troop set out without fanfare.

Once the door closed behind them, trapping them in the current level of the Abyss, Yukari started a conversation with Midori. "Hey, we talked with Chidori. She agreed to not be so clingy."

Midori nodded, glad their communal plan had worked out. "Junpei's doing fine. He's still in shock over everything that happened, but he'll recover better once we're out of the Abyss."

"What do you think will really happen to him?" Fuuka asked quietly, expressing their mutual fears that he would not be able to leave the Abyss, taken back from whence he came.

Choosing to ignore the possible bad ends, Midori thought forward. "He'll have to catch up on his schoolwork, that's for sure."

Koromaru barked in agreement, which led to Aigis speaking. "Mitsuru was already planning that out. She was putting together a set of study guides for Junpei to teach him while we are trapped. She asked to be placed off the available roster, along with Chidori for today and tomorrow at the least."

Midori laughed at the presented image in her head, causing Fuuka and Yukari to join her. "Oh, poor Junpei!"

"Chidori will be joining him," Aigis reported as well, "as she hasn't been in school for some time herself."

"Oh man," Yukari said between fits of giggling. "The two of them, in class together?"

"I think it's cute," Fuuka offered as she prepared to scan ahead of them. "As long as they don't go overboard with it."

"Overboard?" Midori asked incredulously as Fukka invoked her Persona. "Can you imagine the rumours those two will cause?"

Aigis was glad she was not planning on returning to school. That sort of function was not familiar to her, and she did not plan to fumble through it as she had in the past. That was behind her, something no longer necessary.

"What about you, Midori?" Yuakri spun around to walk backwards and face her junior at the same time. "You think you'll make lots of friends at your new school?"

"I should hope so," she replied, "Though I kinda expected to be in Inaba already, and spend the next few days getting to know the town." She had seen the maps and pictures. The place was almost beautiful in a tourist sense, but she knew it would be troublesome for an urban girl like her to get used to the rural school. "I'm more worried about grades. Having three High Schools on my record isn't a good thing, even though none of the transfers were due to my marks."

"Wouldn't having Gekkoukan on your transcript be a good thing?"

"Six months!" Midori objected, crying out with hands raised. "Six months! My previous school wasn't spectacular by any means, and the one in Inaba... doesn't even have a proper tennis team!"

"So make one." Yukari commanded as a group of Shadows came into view. "And heads up!"

The battle wasn't short, but neither was it a hard one. A couple Gigas' types and a couple Mayas traded ineffectual blows with the team until Yukari and Aigis' healing carried the fight.

"So, wait, with Mitsuru and Chidori off to the side," Midori taped her truncheon, examining it for any flaws, "does that mean I'm the go-to girl for Agi and Bufu?"

Objecting, Koromaru barked. He could also invoke fire magic, and he wasn't about to let her forget it.

"Yes," Aigis admitted, though she offered a soft apology to the loyal dog. "I suppose you are."

"YES!" Midori jumped in celebration! "Aigis depends on me!"

"Alright, now you're just being random," Yukari complained sourly.

"No!" Midori got closer to Yukari, a cheerful saunter that was completely at odds with their surroundings. "She depends on me, she trusts me! We're friends!"

"I'm standing right here," the robot in question reminded the energetic junior. "Please do not speak for me."

"You know I'm right!" Midori's call was met by Aigis turning her back on the group, leading through example that they should descend further into the Abyss. "I have to be."

Junpei was the last person to reach the bottom, as they worked very hard to protect him from the Shadows. No one wanted to see what would happen if he was attacked, but from Mitsuru's memories, it would not have been pleasant.

"So, this is the bottom, huh? We get to be free after this?"

"No," Chidori muttered. "These are doorways to our past. To important memories. You were mine, and we rescued you from that." She turned her head away, shying away from his gaze as he responded to the comment with some degree of understanding, or perhaps a lack of it."

"Bets on who its gonna be?" Ken asked as he paced back and forth. No one took up his offer. "Let's just get going then."

Naganaki Shrine

Evening

Koromaru waited.

For as long as it would take.

Minatodai Dorm

Evening

Fuuka hugged Koromaru, giving the dog all the love and affection she could muster. Ken had gotten to him first, to let him know that even though his master was dead, he was not alone and that they all valued him.

It was a sentiment they all shared.

?, ?, ?

Minatodai Dorm, 1st Floor

Morning

Fuuka looked up at the stairs expectantly. "That's odd. I'd've expected them to be down by now." She glanced at the pacing Chidori, who seemed ready to bolt for the upper floors. The only thing holding her back was that Mitsuru had taken a position leaning against the wall between the two.

It was a sign of just how much stress the Dorm Manager was under that she was leaning against the wall.

Ken came down, taking in the collective waiting. "What?" He sounded surprised at the attention directed at him.

"Junpei?" Chidori broke her vigil with a harsh demand of the young boy. "How is he?"

Ken took a moment to groan before answering. "Like he was five minutes ago. Hating his existence."

2nd Floor, Akihiko Sanada's Room

"I hate you!" Junpei wheezed out as Midori handed him a bottle of warm water. The three of them were in school sweats that had been procured from... somewhere. Midori suspected that they were spares laying in the bottom of a closet somewhere. Though why none of them were offered to her to sleep in, she would have to corner Mitsuru over.

Junpei himself was suffering. Akihiko had decided that with his injury being healed relatively well thanks to all the magic poured into it, it would do him well to start exercising it. He had recruited Mindori into his plan as the only other person in the Dorm who held even a faint hope of keeping up with one of his regimes. Not that she had gone willingly, but she had gone none the less.

"Your arm needs to flex, Junpei." Akihiko explained as he pulled out a smaller weight. "We're going with a lighter one for the next ten minutes to keep the muscles loose before moving back higher."

A polite knock came and Midori answered it, her job as doorwoman was to keep not only red-haired interlopers out, but to keep people in. "Yes?" she asked through the closed door.

"I am ready to enter the Abyss," Aigis replied, causing Midori to inch open the door ever so slightly. "Will you be joining us?"

Midori turned to look back at Akihiko, who nodded. "We will," she replied. "Just give Akihiko some time to prep Junpei and we'll be ready to go."

"Thank god!" Junpei cried out in joy at the news before a pair of annoyed glares shut him up. "I hate you both. I really do."

The Abyss of Time

Afternoon

Gathered around the door, Midori expressed her annoyance at having a change of clothes denied to her by wearing the sports sweats into the Abyss. Mitsuru had tried to object, but she had pointed out that her other clothes could really use a proper washing, and that these were still legitimate club wear.

That she technically wasn't a student of Gekkokan anymore didn't factor in at all, her arguments were far more physical in nature, and when Yukari had voiced her agreement that her cardigan was getting tattered, Mitsuru had relented.

"Ready?" Aigis asked of the crowd around her, taking note of those who still had yet to experience something from their past. Fuuka, Yukari and Midori all wore their expressions openly, a mix of worry, apprehension and resignation. It was enough to make the others almost forget that they had another encounter with the shadow that looked like Minato, though it had ignored her calling out his name. It would have broken her heart, if she let herself have one.

Metis, for her part, just wanted this over and done with. As they got closer and closer to removing all the doors from the Abyss, she had become more and more tense and terse in her communications with Aigis. And the elder robot could see why. Having ones mission so close to completion meant thinking about what came next. It was enough to cause Aigis to retreat back into the shell of the Kirijo Corporation, and their Anti-Shadow development program.

But she wasn't so unattentative to her surroundings that she failed to notice that everyone had signalled their preparedness. Even Junpei, with Chidori at his side, was solemn. Accepting this, she turned to face the next door, and opened it.

Tartarus, Lobby

There was a stillness to the quiet that surrounded them that presented a subtle pressure. Great things were happening, and they couldn't interfere. "We're back here?" Ken asked their mutual question. "I thought we already did this with Mitsuru?"

They turned to look at the doors, but this was no replay of a memory they had already visited. Kirijo, his daughter and the others would not walk in to be attacked.

"We did, and I do not think this is a repeat." Aigis analyzed the situation carefully. "Midori, Fuuka, Yukari, Myself. Who would have important memories here?"

Further deliberation was cut short when the teleporter activated. SEES watched as Minato stumbled out of the pillar of light, exhausted beyond human comprehension. He was followed by Mitsuru, then Yukari, Aigis and the rest. They didn't say a word as they looked at each other with pride. "We did good, everyone," the memory of Minato said while smiling. Yukari – both of them – smiled back. "Let's go home and get some sleep."

"Sleep!" Midori was focused on past-Midori as she agreed before stumbling and being caught by the elbow by Chidori, who lifted her back up with a grunt and gently shoved her to the front door.

The procession left, leaving behind another round of silence, then confusion as everyone tried to figure out what they had just witnessed. Except Midori. She had already figured that this was her memory. The place and the time were obvious now, but what did it all mean?

A very large part of her was glad that it wasn't back in Tokyo. She had felt an unaccustomed terror at the idea that the rest of her friends would get an honest look into that week. Oh sure, she knew that some of them understood it on an intellectual level, but there was a large difference between reading reports and seeing pictures than living through a rampaging Demon attack on innocent civilians.

Or fighting back.

"What are you doing, Midori?" Junpei asked as he came up after her, Chidori close behind.

"This is my place," she admitted, without turning around. "My memory."

"Is there meaning to all this?" Chidori waved a hand around, not only taking in the whole of the Tower, but also gathering everyone's attention. "Why you? Why this place?"

Midori sat down, grateful for the pants rather than her skirt. What sort of message was the past sending her? What sort of regret bound her to the Abyss as thoroughly as everyone else?

Self-reflection didn't come easy for her. She was far too outgoing to really make the internal connections that she could have made instantly if it was someone else she was looking at. Junpei stood at Chidori's side, the two of them closest to her as she tried to puzzle this out. Why here? Why Tartarus? Why now? After they had defeated Nyx and left the Tower for the last time?

What did this last day mean to her?

"Hey, Midori? You alright?" Junpei was the one who was trying to reach out to her the most right now. "You look kinda out of it."

Her thoughts were trapped in circles. Every time she tried to figure out why, she was hauled back into the present and their inescapable predicament. She had something in her that prevented their release. But what was it?

Taking a deep breath, she changed her approach. Akihiko's teachings about proper breathing – she didn't breath regularly in a fight, who knew? - came up as she chose to start with the things most precious to her.

Love and Justice.

She loved everyone. There was justice in what they did. That much was obvious, so why did this moment call to her so much? Shy did she not want to let go?

Perhaps because it was the last moment that Minato was truly alive? No, that would be Yukari. There was no way her love could overcome that Love! BAD THOUGHT! She slapped her own cheeks to remove the imagined images from her mind. But still. It was a start. She was making progress by being true to herself.

But that didn't seem to be helping her. Sure, her love was a connection with everyone, but the same could be said for the rest of them to her and each other. It was a non-starter. What about Justice? Ugh, that was the hard part. She had seen what happens when people take Law to the extremes, and she still hadn't really sorted that out yet. But Justice was more than that. It was doing what was Right, not what was required. Justice was not Law, so she could safely keep to one while beating up the latter.

And that was the wrong line of thoughts again. She had to get away from Tokyo! Back into Tartarus! Back into...

Oh.

She was an idiot.

"That was rather rude of us." She stood up and took in everyone around her. Time to break out the side of her that loved being the center of attention. "You know what? I think we should give our thanks to Tartarus!" Her announcement was met with a unified look of disbelief. Even Koromaru managed to pull it off. "Look," she said as she tried to explain her revelation and its repercussions, "This was our last time in Tartarus. I know some of us have been here more than others, we've had this discussion, and when it was all over, we just... left! That was wrong!"

They didn't get it. She tried again. "It was rude, and impolite, and we never had a chance to make our peace with this place. Without it, without what it represented, we would never had met each other, never have become friends and more, we would never had become better people!" They were starting to understand, some more than others. It was obvious that Chidori and Junpei instantly jumped to meeting each other, while Fuuka was rolling things around in her head.

But she was also a (wannabe) Magical Girl, and that meant being able to drop speeches that weren't too long. "Even though it's gone, we owe Tartarus some respect. And in the end, all we did was just walk away. So I think we should give our thanks for all this, now that we have the chance, then go back home."

She snap-turned on her heel to face the stairs, looking up one last time at the giant clock-face that marked the eternal midnight that they fought in. She bowed as deeply as she could, holding her position for as long as she felt was necessary then standing up.

And she felt better for it. It was nice to finally end something properly, rather than being rushed through things. She felt ... better for it. And she didn't feel like checking if anyone else had done the same. It was time to head back to the Dorm, to get ready for supper and the next round through the Abyss.

No sense in dwelling on the past anymore.